This invention pertains to a football helmet, and in particular to the face guard mounting assembly of a football helmet.
A primary consideration in mounting a face guard to a football helmet is the protection of the player from facial injury. The face guard is generally comprised of a grid-like arrangement of wire segments which are coated with a resilient plastic-like material. The face guard covers the player's face so that the face guard and the helmet will absorb the blows and shocks caused by player contact and will protect the player's face from injury. Since forceful shocks must be absorbed by the face guard, it is imperative that the face guard is securely attached to the helmet and that the blows and shocks received by the face guard will not be transmitted to the player but will be absorbed by the face guard, the face guard mounting assembly and the helmet assembly. Additionally, it is important that the entire face guard mounting assembly is resilient so that strong blows will not break the face guard loose from the helmet. It is therefore desirable to provide a resilient mounting arrangement for a football helmet face guard wherein the mounting arrangement absorbs the shocks imparted to the face guard.
In prior art face guard mounting assemblies a problem has been encountered in that the face guard would distort under the impact of heavy blows thereto. The blows received by the face guard in these arrangements are absorbed not only by the helmet and the mounting assemblies, but are also absorbed by the wire material of the face guards which are distorted by these forces. If a mounting assembly does not absorb enough of the shock forces, the forces will be absorbed by the face guard itself and cause permanent distortion therein. This has the disadvantage that the face guard must periodically be replaced. When very large football players use football helmets with these types of face guard mounting assemblies, the face guards must often be replaced after each game. When the face guard takes on permanent distortion it also tends to distort the plastic helmet shell in a lateral direction. The distorted helmet will cause an improper and loose fit to the players head. It is therefore desirable to provide a mounting arrangement for a football helmet face guard wherein the face guard will not permanently distort under the impact of blows thereto.
Another consideration in the mounting of a face guard to a football helmet is the proper fit. The face guard should be streamlined so as to follows the contours of the helmet shell thereby reducing any catching and snagging points.
In the design of a football helmet and the mounting assembly of a face guard therefor, it is important that the helmet is easy to place on the player's head and is easily removed therefrom. This is especially true in case of injury, when it is important that the face guard can be removed without disturbing the position of the helmet on the player's head. It is therefore desirable to provide a face guard mounting assembly for a helmet wherein the face guard can be pivoted away from the player's face.
Since human heads, and therefore football helmets, vary considerably in size it has been necessary with the prior art face guards to stock a variety of sizes of face guards to match the helmets. However, this entails additional expense and is therefore undesirable. It is therefore desired to provide a face guard mounting assembly which permits a universal size face guard to be used with a variety of helmet sizes.
Two prior art patents which disclose mounting systems for mounting a face guard to a football helmet are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,139,624 and 3,263,236. In both of these patents a face guard mounting system is disclosed wherein the face guard is mounted to the top of the helmet and wherein the face guard can pivot about the mounting devices and swing away from the face of the player. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,624 an arrangement is provided wherein a bumper is provided against which a wire member of the face guard is positioned. The bumper will be compressed under the action of shock forces to the face guard. The bumper is resilient so that shock forces and blows to the face guard will be absorbed by the bumper. However, in use the face guard will spread away laterally from the helmet under the impact of heavy blows and will permanently distort. The lateral movement of the face guard also pulls the helmet shell in a lateral direction. This distorts the helmet shell and does not allow a proper fit to the players head. Therefore, the face guard will need to be replaced periodically. Additionally, in this assembly, the face guard is mounted a substantial distance forward of the ear holes so that with this arrangement a variety of face guard sizes must be made available to match the different helmets sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,236 discloses a resilient mounting assembly including a clamp or resilient strap. As can be seen from this patent, the arrangement has the same disadvantage as the arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,624 in that the clamps or straps will be in compression under the impact of frontal blows to the face guard. The face guard will tend to move laterally away from the vertical sides of the helmet and will tend to assume a permanently distorted position. The distorted face guard will tend to pull the helmet shell in a lateral direction. This distorts the helmet shell and does not allow a proper fit to the player's head. Additionally, the straps or clamps will tend to roll over backwardly under the impact of the distorting forces. The mounting location of the face guard to the helmet requires the matching of a properly sized face guard for a particular helmet size, so that no universal face guard size can be used.
In some prior art helmet assemblies, the strap-like structure which has been provided for mounting the face guard to the helmet in a compression mode has been built up at the head of the strap where the strap attaches to the helmet to provide the face guard with a bumper. These bumpers must be resilient and must be made relatively thick to aid in absorbing the compression forces generated by blows on the face mask. The strap bumper portions require additional material to manufacture, and furthermore do not function satisfactorily in absorbing the shock forces. When strong blows are encountered by the face guard, the stresses on the face guard will tend to cause the face guard to spread and separate laterally away from the helmet. This is particularly true because of the forward mounting of the face guard to the helmet at the point where the sides of the helmet are tapered. Since the face guard must conform to this taper it will have a natural inclination to move laterally away from the helmet, thus pulling the helmet shell in the same lateral direction. It is therefore desirable to provide a mounting system for a helmet wherein the mounting device is in tension and wherein a universal face guard size can be used.